Can I add multiple cost prices to a single product?

CS-EMP
Visitor
2 0 2

Trying to set up a horse rug, the different sizes cost us different cost prices from the supplier, but its the same product, and so we'd like to list them in one listing, as variants. We can see where you can enter multiple customer prices for the variants, but not different cost prices? New to Shopify so apologies if we missed something really simple!

Replies 17 (17)

Reincarnated
Pathfinder
103 8 36

@CS-EMP  If you click Edit, on each variant, you can enter the Cost per Variant.

 

Best Regards.

CS-EMP
Visitor
2 0 2
Thabks so much both, we'll give it a go!

Ash
Shopify Staff (Retired)
764 88 160

Hey, @CS-EMP!

 

Ash here from the Shopify team. Welcome to the Shopify Community!

 

It totally makes sense that different sizes of the same product may cost you different prices when purchasing them from your supplier. You can absolutely track each variants cost separately in your admin. When you have multiple variants of a single product, you will see them on the product page in the admin, and have the option to edit them as seen below: 


20-02-a4fyh-dqt9f.png

 

When you click on 'Edit', you'll be able to add in a cost for the specific variant you've selected: 

 

20-02-ho2q6-g8zs3.png

 

You can also toggle between your products variants, and add in a different cost for each: 

 

20-02-cse0v-3mnd5.png

 

Here is some more information you can check out on working with Variants in your Shopify account. Send a reply here if you have any further questions, or need any with setting up your variants. I'm happy to continue our conversation.

To learn more visit the Shopify Help Center or the Community Blog.

vanbasten007
Visitor
1 0 7

I have two similar questions. However, it is for an identical product. The cost of the product has gone down since I bought it last. So let's say I bought 1,000 of Product A in January at $5.00 cost which is what currently reflected. Now, I have 500 units left and I am ordering another 2000 units, but the product A now costs much less, let's say $2.50. Is there a way to sign two costs to this identical product, i.e. $5.00 to the remaining 500 units and $2.50 to the additional 2000 units? Also, if I change the cost, would this change be applied only to the future sales or is this retroactive and my cost of goods sold for the previous months change as well, hence changing my P&L for the previous periods (which I don’t want).

kimelyse
Tourist
7 0 7

Did you ever get a response to this? I am looking for the same info.

LastChanceNash
Visitor
1 0 3

Did anyone ever reply to this?  I'm trying to figure this same question out. Seems like it should be able to be done since it's not uncommon inventory cost changes and we need to have accurate Cost of Goods Sold for both the old inventory and the new inventory without having to go in and manually calculate the average cost between the two.  Hoping you got an answer or someone else can come in and answer this question

 

addicttackle
Tourist
7 0 4

Jumping on this too - 9000 products / 13000 variants and a different price every time we buy from suppliers. Really need the ability to track what we've sold of which stock items and very hard to run effective sales without knowing cost price. The only way I see without this functionality or an app is to average costs when new inventory comes in - which is a nightmare for P/L!

kimelyse
Tourist
7 0 7

I have not been able to come up with a solution unfortunately 

littlefil1
Shopify Partner
1 0 2

i'm also looking for a solution to this. Any update

fukuyafoods
Tourist
4 0 14

Indeed we need a solution for this.  Can't just manually change it all the time.  I ran a business that the cost of goods changes along with fluctuation of currency...

SaltaireCo
Visitor
3 0 0

@fukuyafoods wrote:

Indeed we need a solution for this.  Can't just manually change it all the time.  I ran a business that the cost of goods changes along with fluctuation of currency...


I’m going to reply to you, since you’re the only one who posted in this year and might still be helped. The correct solution is not multiple costs for the same item. The correct solution is to always average costs across current inventory. If you have 5 identical items and you paid $1 for three of them and $3.50 for two of them, they’re still identical items. You paid $10 for 5 items and the cost is $2/item. You just need to average costs. The formula is (quantity 1)*(price 1) + (quantity 2)*(price 2) / (total quantity). (Q1*P1+Q2*P2)/Qt = Unit Cost.

 

as for how much manual data entry is done to accomplish your updates, someone’s got to feed the information in somehow. Ideally your purchase quantities and prices come in as a spreadsheet and you simply feed it to your inventory software. If you’re only updating a few items, you can do it manually instead.

 

edit: if you don’t already own the product, and you’re selling something you have not purchased yet, then it gets more complicated. The correct answer depends on more specifics, but it’s still not really difficult.

addicttackle
Tourist
7 0 4
Thanks for the reply.

unfortunately that is not a viable solution as we base pricing and profit
margins on cost price at time of our purchase. We frequently get products
of the same make and model at clearance wholesale prices and therefore
offer these at sale prices to our customers. If we average cost prices, we
don't know how many we have sold at sale prices and RRP. WIth over 13000
variants, manually calculating every product as it arrives is time and
labour prohibitive.

Thanks again for your response though, it is much appreciated
SaltaireCo
Visitor
3 0 0

I’m gonna try again here. I read your first post again. Tracking profit and loss is based on instanced transactions. That should not be a “nightmare.” You track data at the time of sale: cost, price sold for, quantity, date, client, maybe a few other details. The P/L sheet reflects just two items: cost*quantity and price*quantity. Maybe cost of delivery depending on how you handle that. The fact that your two variables were different for order 101 and order 1001 doesn’t matter at all. It seems to me like you are wrongly tracking your P/L and if you ever update costs, your P/L will be ruined because your calculating it based off living values. Record the sale data for each instance and export it. The idea that your P/L records for every transaction could be destroyed by a keystroke or updating your prices is the problem. Are you calculating it once end-of-year based on these living values? That’s nuts.

 

Everyone with fluctuating prices uses this model. You participate every time you buy gas. It’s not a P/L problem for any of them. I think you should not be stuck on this. Sometimes we make things harder for no reason.

 

As for choosing to price identical lots differently based on your purchase costs per lot, that’s ridiculous. Let’s use a basic example to explain why: you bought something for $1 to sell for $2, and now you buy another lot for $2.50. You now find yourself selling at a loss on old stock while nothing is wrong with it. I get that you might feel this is “more honest” and you are “passing discounts directly and faithfully to your customers” but it’s not. Your sales prices do not reflect real market value and costs. Reverse the trend, have the product suddenly drop in value and costs, and your unwillingness to average your product costs (unwillingness to correctly reflect market value) has you overcharging clients on old stock. Why would I want the old stock?

 

What I do is buying and selling in bulk, both repeating and non-repeating items.

 

Maybe I’m missing something here. If you insist on doing things the way you are, then there is in fact a way to do it. You create an entry which is a dummy with the basic stats but no quantity or price. Then whenever you get stock, you create an entry for it, and link it to the dummy entry, which then becomes the “Parent Product”. Maybe there’s a better way but I don’t know of one. You duplicate an older entry for the product whenever you get new stock, and just fix the variables for the new entry (probably just quantity, cost, and price in your case). Add whatever extra data you want, like date acquired or source or whatever.

addicttackle
Tourist
7 0 4

Thanks but maybe there is no need to reply to posts if you are frustrated that you are not being understood or feel the need to be condescending. Clearly people have the need for this for their own reasons, whether you feel it is the "correct solution" or not. Judgment here is not the goal. Good luck to you and your business.

Para1
Visitor
1 0 0

Hello,

I am a new to this. Just opened a basic Shopify account. My challenge:

Want to price my product based on set quantity. Example 250 = $5.00, 500 = $10.00, 1000 = $20.00 etc. 

Thanks.

shopsunnyshores
Visitor
1 0 0

Hi Ash! I am unable to edit the variant to this extent. I am only able to name it and add a value. I am unable to adjust price. How can I add a price?

SaltaireCo
Visitor
3 0 0

Read the tutorial with pictures above, or start a new thread if it’s outdated. It’s step by step with pictures from the support staff.